Belt driven reel to reel tape cartridges and tape drives adapted for their use are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,255, issued to Von Behren. In the Von Behren cartridge the tape extends between the reels along a tape path across a cutaway portion of the cartridge for access to a transducer or recording head which is part of the tape drive. A driving belt contacts the tape on the reels to bi-directionally drive the tape, including rapid accelerations and decelerations, such as are encountered in digital data recording and playback.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,143 discloses a head positioning mechanism for a Von Behren cartridge recorder which positions a recording head core transversely of the magnetic tape to record data in a series of parallel tracks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,179 discloses a recording head core yoke for a Von Behren cartridge recorder which carries the recording head core and supports the magnetic tape transversely of its direction of movement. However, recent developments in reduced recording track spacing require a smaller recording head core and greater lateral support for this core. Smaller video recording cores have a thin body including two major surfaces, opposed ends, a curved upper wall, and two wound wire coils adjacent the ends. These cores can provide the required parallel recording track densities if the core is rigidly supported. Adequate support is also necessary because the cores are extremely fragile.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,596 to Kraemer et al. (the '596 patent) addresses these problems. The '596 patent discloses a recording head core yoke in which a narrow slot 36 supports the core along its length adjacent the bottom wall of the core and a perpendicular thin slot 58 supports the core along its depth. The thin slot 58 is formed by walls which help to define relief slots 38, 40. The relief slots accommodate wound wire coils while the slots 36, 58 support the core along its length and depth, respectively. However, while this arrangement supports the core along both the length and depth of the core, it is desirable to provide further support. The yoke design of the '596 patent does not provide core support along the length of the upper wall of the core.